Windows Phone is Officially Dead

A minute of silence as Microsoft pulls the plug on Windows Phone 8.1, for those of you who have been paying attention, the inevitable has happened. Effective today, Microsoft is ceasing support for Windows Phone 8.1. Though phones running the platform will not be bricked, but the company will not be pushing any future updates for Windows Phone 8.1. The Windows Phone operating system was Microsoft’s biggest efforts in countering Android and iOS. However, as 99.6% of the smartphones run Android or iOS Microsoft failed to capture the market with Windows Phone and it never truly got off the ground.

While a few good phones were launched in the early days by HTC and then by Microsoft in partnership with Nokia aka the Lumia handsets, but they failed to gain popularity unlike their competitors. Though Microsoft continues to support Windows 10 Mobile, it’s unclear how long and to what extent that support will be available.

Rumor has it that Microsoft has branched out its Windows Mobile development into a “feature2” division that will only maintain Windows 10 Mobile until 2018, while any support for Windows Phone 8.1 has been officially terminated. Over the past year , it has becoming quite clear that company is shifting back it’s focus from smartphones to PCs. Microsoft’s new mobile strategy now seems to involve creating apps and integrating iOS and Android with Windows.